Using more switch ports to gain speed

[dani_17]

Usin more switch ports to gain speen

Hi,

I bought a 16 port 3com 100/10mbps wich is the smallest one I could find in the dominican republic, I wanted the 8 port model wich nobody sells here.

It has a dip swith so you make 4 port trunks. The manual explains that if you do a trunk (4 ports working together) and connect that 4 ports with crossed cables to another switch with 4 trunked ports, you will achive a 400mbps link / 800mbsp full duplex.

I searched the net and couldn't find an answer. Is it possible to fit a computer with 4 nic's and connect it to 4 ports in the switch and utilice this 400mbps?

That would be great. It's a bit less than half a gigabit ethernet network, but it's also a lot cheaper!

I'll continue searching the net and if I find something I'll post it here. If you have any idea, post it here if you want.

 

[XtR-X]

Lol, first, that sucks, it's like the opossite in the US. I can't find a switch/router with enough ports.

(Sorry off topic)

 

[Phantasm66]

As far as I know, what you are describing is only for one switch to connect to another. I believe that it requires some special configuration on the switches themselves. I don't think its switch to host, rather just switch to switch.

I may be wrong, but I really don't think so.

So I think your plan is out.

 

[MrGaribaldi]

I'll split the Q in two, as it'll make it easier for me to answer...

1. Can I use more than one nic in a machine, and connect all of them to the same switch?

Yes, just remember to give them different IP's, and you should be set... This will let you game on one nic, whilst downloading on the other...

2. Will they combine so I'll have one very fast connection?

Whilst it is possible to do, I have no clue as to how you do it... You might require a "special" server version of the software to make it work, as I don't see any way of doing it in W2k pro....

A friend of mine set up an FTP server that way on a lan, so we could leech faster, but unfortunately I don't know what OS/FTP program he was using....
And I don't have a way of contacting him for a couple of months...

If you search around on more network related sites than this, you might find what you're looking for....

 

[dani_17]

As you said MrGaribaldi, using more than 1 nic to connect a computer tu the lan is possible. But, if you want to use them with the same ip address and use the total avaliable bandwith they can provide asi if it were only 1 connection it's perfectly possible. It's called "NIC Teaming". But it won't work in just any 15$ nic...

You need some good branded nic's, as there is some software and driver support needed. The high end 3com nic's are available for that. There are even nic's with 2,3 and 4 ports in it to do this, but that's for 64 bit pci.

I just can't try that now, cause I only have 1 3com nic (3C905C-tx). I'll try to get another one that's the same and see what happens.

Also, chances are that this will only work in linux and server versions of windows, not windows xp or 2000 pro.

 

[Phantasm66]

Originally posted by dani_17
As you said MrGaribaldi, using more than 1 nic to connect a computer tu the lan is possible.

Yeah, I know that you can have more than one NIC in a computer. Servers at my work have up to 8 and my home server has three.

But is the situation you describe - 4 port point to points merged together to increase bandwidth - is certainly possible between switches....

Is is possible between switch and a host (i.e. server?) I don't know.

If anyone does, and have some information in evidence, please post it because this sounds interesting and I would like to read more about it.

 

[Nic]

NIC Teaming ...

Teaming is effective in cases where you install two or more NICs in a server. Teaming is logically grouping the NICs so that they appear to the operating system as just one network interface. The benefits include gaining extra network bandwidth and not having to deal with multiple NIC addresses. Instead, you can assign a single 'virtual' IP address to a team of adapters.

Most teaming solutions come with failover protection. Teaming allows your network to tolerate the failure of one or more adapters within a group, thus offering high availability. In addition, this kind of fault tolerance can be configured to work with complete transparency. The remaining NICs in the team continue to work if another card stops working or if a cable gets disconnected.


More Info ...

Using NIC Teaming to Achieve High Availability on Linux Platforms

Speed up your cable modem with Connection Teaming!

 

[MrGaribaldi]

Thank you Nic and dani_17...
Nice to know I wasn't too far off the mark

And thank you for giving me some links to read...
Allways nice to be able to expand ones knowledge

 

[Savage1701]

FWIW, I tried this with a Netgear gigabit switch and 2 CPU's using Asus P5W64 boards with dual onboard Marvell NICs. Now, obviously, Marvell controllers are not high end in the NIC world, and my Netgear switch is not the best, but it does offer aggregation, and so do the Marvell controllers. I set the whole thing up, got the third virtual connection on each machine, and tried some file transfers. The best I got was a 20% speed improvement for the types of files I transfer most - large video files. From what I read, I assumed I could not get much better than 50% improvement, due to limitations of my switch, overhead, etc., but to me 20% was not worth exploring it further or spending the money on a better switch, better NIC's, etc. And no, I did not use Jumbo Frames since I assumed that would preclude the rest of my network computers from using the 2 I was experimenting with. Just passing this along. For me, the potential headaches were not woth an extra 20%.

 

[tipstir]

Savage1701 what do you have?
unmanaged
managed
smart
advance smart?

Gain speed in the switch depends on what type of cpu they're using and number of memory packets buffers it's using.

Most are 64KB to 96KB and 128KB for Netgear 5, 8-ports 10/100 and 128KB for Gig.

Linksys had sported 1MB for it's 5-port switch. I use Netgear ProSafe and the white ones for switches myself I use to use Linksys and Dlink but they seem to have port failure or just get to hot.

Business Version ProSafe 96KB (blue)


Home Version 64KB (white)


Both keep cool, the home version doesn't have mounting screww nor can it be hung on the wall. It could be done with two screws and special wire.

 

[Savage1701]

I have the Netgear GS748T